Today is 19 november. Everything came out of the jars, and went to market. Very well received with lots of positive comments. All expenses were covered, and since I'm in cali thats all I'm going to say. These lights work very well. My plants were 4' plus tall so penetration was not a problem. Don't forget that these were sativas so the foilage was less dense than a lot of other strains. I've gotten my seeds for the next run from Bulldog. As soon as they pop, I'll get busy and fire my lights up for a second run. I cant decide how many, but probably 6 or 8. I'll try to tweak these based on what I learned last time, and see what they'll do. Please, SME if you have any opinions or suggestions, I'd like your input. THANKS and as always ROCK ON!

The 5w diodes certainly help but 4' tall plants are pushing it with LED, I wouldn't go taller. I'd suggest keeping an eye on the fundamentals like heat, ph, ppm/ec, pests, humidity, etc. Also remember that the more w/sqft the better, up to a point. I'd go with 6 instead of 8 because it's harder to deal with overcrowding late in a grow than it is dealing with a little open space. If you grew the same plants, from clone, all of the time, you'd get a feel for how many you need to properly fill the grow area without overcrowding or wasting too much space. Trying different seeds gives variety but it also brings uncertainty, even within the same genetics.

Hope that helps but if you have more questions there are a number of people here willing to pitch in...just ask.

I'm in day 31 of flower, and should have been reporting regularly before now. Everything this time is almost the same as the last run, except for two things. First, I used seed this time to produce seven plants (instead of five) of sour diesel from Bulldog. Second, I'm using tap water instead of RO. So far the run has been relatively uneventful, plants are shorter and back on my table (it is easier on my back). Still watering by hand and mixing fresh nutes twice a day, everyday. There is a lot of detail in the first run postings along with results, so I won't go into that mode again. Except to say that I really like these lights. Here are some pix of the current run.

Welcome back m00chy!

SME, thanks for the welcome. I was feeling guilty about not posting, must go back to childhood I guess.

I was out in my room this morning and got to thinking about penetration. I really do not know what that means. How is it determined, or measured? If you thin out the plants does that improve penetration? Does a really thick canopy inhibit penetration? If my room is lit up like a runway does that mean that I have good penetration, is bigger better? What is optimum penetration.............. on and on! Whew, got carried away there. Seems like many of these things we talk about are pretty subjective. I was looking at one of the threads on here yesterday and was astounded that one person claimed to get many times the production with HID's than with leds, like 3 or 4 times the bud. Seems doubtful. I think there was an effort to justify outrageous power consumption. Just sayin'.
For now, I love my lights........ROCK ON!

You're confessing thinking about penetration to SisterMaryElephant?

Well, simply put, it's the ability of light to penetrate the canopy, the more powerful/intense the deeper it can go. I think there is a technical way to measure that but I forget what it's called. What matters is results and the way to tell which light penetrates better is to gauge the difference in the flowers of taller plants from the top to the bottom. LED is best used for shorter plants because it lacks penetration power. 1000w HID does penetrate better than other common grow lights, there aren't any LED lights (that I'm aware of) that have that kind of penetration power. Yes, the thicker the canopy the more difficult it is to penetrate, that's one of the reasons that overcrowding is bad. "Lit up like a runway" is subjective. The optimum is : 1% more than you have....no matter how much you have. Yield comparisons are difficult but depending on growing styles, genetics and other factors 3 - 4 times the yield *could* be possible but the CLW lights seem to be about equal to a similar sized HID for small plants. Unfortunately, many LED makers claim that smaller LED lights can keep up with larger HID, in flower, lights and that seems to be a myth.

I think beefxer's journal did pretty good demonstrating 1000w HID penetration vs the SS400 since it was a 1 plant to 1 plant comparison. You could see the larger and better flowers under the HID. That test wasn't 3-4 times the yield but you could see an actual difference that penetration makes.

OK, I guess I'm just too wrapped up in my quest for the best solution for my particular growing setup. I've invested in my LEDs and want to get the maximum yield out of them. Anyway, I'm fighting back tears over the fact that I may have made a bad investment, did I mention that I'm a pensioner on a fixed income, a navy veteran of Vietnam, with disability, and perfecting my major asshole status, and always short of money(aren't we all!)
Today is day 49, and the beginning of week #8, the girls are fattening up nicely, but the gnats are back, a few little bastards. I took some pix , so here they are. By the way, the lights are performing flawlessly. Thank's guys! ROCK ON!

I'm a little confused. You want to get the best yield you can with what you have but you think you made a bad investment even though the lights are performing well and the plants are fattening up? While there are better performing lights the lights you have are OK, you just have to adjust growing styles to fit the conditions. There is no one light that is best suited to every growing style so if you want to maximize yield, for what you have, you may need to change some things. The plants look decent (although I do see nutrient issues forming) and we can help you get the best yield that you can with what you have but I'm not sure what the problem is other than gnats and the nute burn which are treatable.



BTW, I'm a disabled US Army vet; I know how it can be living on a budget and dealing with the VA...so thank you for your service.

To clear any confusion, anytime that I have to part with any money, I tend to cry and second guess myself into nausea. It's just a character flaw. Something about always getting the upper hand. Despite my bitchin, I am happy with these lights and the results from these last two runs. Final dry numbers came in at 28.3 ouncesx28g/oz= 792 g/930w = .851 g/watt.
Cure and smoke test will finish the report, soon. I'm going to use 6-7 oz for a tincture and the rest will go to the dispensary.

If you guys are up for it, I'll do another run, and report back. If there are ANY questions, I'll happily answer. ROCK ON!

Yeah man, by all means, start a new journal! We'll see if we can help you beat your last one...